18-Nov-2012
RHI AG is a renowned
name in the market, development, production and service of refractories. They
are the Germany-based world leader in the field of refractories with 8100
employees and production facilities in about 32 countries and more than 100
locations around the world. Currently the total volume refractories produced by
RHI AG is more than 2 million tonnes p.a. of Refractory Bricks (Refractory Bricks – Shapes and Sizes), Castables, Mortars and other functional products.
RHI has built and
inaugurated one of the largest fusion plants for magnesia raw materials for
more than 75 million euros in Norway in this month. In this fusion plant,
magnesia obtained from sea water is converted to fused magnesia, which is a
high-grade refractory raw material, at temperatures about 2800OC.
With a capacity of approximately 85000 tonnes per year, the plant is one of the
largest worldwide. According to RHI, 120 employees will work at the plant in
full operation.
“We are increasing
self-supply with magnesia raw materials, which are very important for the
refractories industry, to 80% and thus continue to consistently pursue our
strategy of backward integration. With this new plant, we will be completely
independent from Asian fused magnesia imports. And we are shortening delivery
routes to the European RHI sites”, said RHI CEO Franz Struzl at a press
conference at the plant in Porsgrunn, Norway.
“The Porsgrunn location
offers several advantages, including the infrastructure, the support of local
politics and the energy costs in Norway. In addition, we have decades of
experience, which gives us a very good command of the complex process of
obtaining magnesia from seawater. The construction of the fusion plant is one
of the largest onshore investments in Norway in five years and is planned as a
long-term investment”, said RHI plant manager Roger Gravdal.
RHI acquired this fusion
plant in Porsgrunn and another raw material plant in Drogheda (Ireland) last
year. Both plants are based on the extraction of magnesia from sea water. RHI
thus broadened its technological base in extracting refractory raw materials
and increased the number of raw material plants to eight.
RHI mines magnesite and
dolomite at six locations in Austria, Italy, Turkey and China in surface and
underground mining. RHI produces about 1 million tonnes of refractory raw
materials per year.
The advantage of fused
magnesia from Norway lies in its highly refractory properties caused by the
firing process by means of electrofusion, in which the crystalline structure
magnesia is improved significantly and the magnesia (MgO) content is increased
to nearly 100%.
Fused magnesia from
Norway is primarily used at the European RHI plants Veitsch (Austria), Radenthein
(Austria), Aken (Germany) and Duisburg (Germany) and processed to end products
for the steel, cement, lime, refractory and some nonferrous Metals industries.
(Source: RHI)